How to run a ./configure script inside makefile

I have tried the following:

$(shell ./libpng/configure)
./libpng/configure

under this context

all : build_jpeg build_libpng

#JPEG BUILD RULES
build_jpeg :
        make -C ./jpeg  

#LIB PNG BUILD RULES
build_libpng :
        $(shell ./libpng/configure)
        make -C ./libpng

What can I do to make this work?

Answer

What happens when you just do ./libpng/configure? Make sure the configure script is executable! (chmod +x ./libpng/configure)